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James L. Cambias

A Darkling Sea: A Novel Hardcover – January 28, 2014

by James L. Cambias (Author)

229 ratings

Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

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On the planet Ilmatar, under a roof of ice a kilometer thick, a team of deep-sea diving scientists investigates the blind alien race that lives below. The Terran explorers have made an uneasy truce with the Sholen, their first extraterrestrial contact: so long as they don't disturb the Ilmataran habitat, they're free to conduct their missions in peace.

But when Henri Kerlerec, media personality and reckless adventurer, ends up sliced open by curious Ilmatarans, tensions between Terran and Sholen erupt, leading to a diplomatic disaster that threatens to escalate to war.

Against the backdrop of deep-sea guerrilla conflict, a new age of human exploration begins as alien cultures collide. Both sides seek the aid of the newly enlightened Ilmatarans. But what this struggle means for the natives―and the future of human exploration―is anything but certain, in A Darkling Sea by James Cambias.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Tor Books
Publication date

January 28, 2014
Dimensions

6.18 x 1.16 x 8.46 inches
ISBN-10

0765336278
ISBN-13

978-0765336279
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Strongly reminiscent of Robert Silverberg from the late 1960s and early 1970s, this SF novel is set on a distant world, Ilmatar, whose native species are being studied by human scientists. The Sholen, the dominant alien species in that area of space, have allowed the humans access to Ilmatar, but under strict rules, which include the requirement that they absolutely must not have any contact with its sea-dwelling residents. When a human gets too close to a group of Ilmatarans and is killed by them, the Sholen send a team of investigators to the planet; the incident not only threatens the diplomatic relations between humans and the Sholen but also could lead to all-out war. The author tells the story through the eyes of three characters: Rob, a member of the human exploration team and witness to the incident; Broadtail, an Ilmataran who has been declared an exile from his community after he took the life of another Ilmataran; and Tizhos, an unconventional Sholen who’s concerned the incident will cause her government to shut down all contact with Ilmatar. Like Silverberg, who developed fully realized alien societies in such novels as Downward to the Earth (to which this novel bears some thematic resemblance), Cambias makes the Sholen and Ilmataran people and cultures as real as the more familiar human component. Beautifully written, with a story that captures the imagination the way SF should. --David Pitt

Review

“An impressive debut by a gifted writer.” ―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“An exceptionally thoughtful, searching and intriguing debut.” ―Kirkus, Starred Review

“Like Silverberg, who developed fully realized alien societies in such novels as Downward to the Earth (to which this novel bears some thematic resemblance), Cambias makes the Sholen and Ilmataran people and cultures as real as the more familiar human component. Beautifully written, with a story that captures the imagination the way SF should.” ―Booklist, Starred Review

“A stunning debut! Alien races to rival Larry Niven, world-building to rival Hal Clement, and lots of rip-roaring adventure. James Cambias will be one of the century's major names in hard science fiction.” ―Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues

“Fast-paced, pure quill hard science fiction.... Cambias delivers adroit plot pivots that keep the suspense coming.” ―Gregory Benford, Nebula Award-winning author of Timescape

“This is great fun--traditional science fiction but with today's science. And I love the aliens.” ―Jo Walton, Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning author of Among Others

“The best story about an alien race and its environment that I've read in a long time. Cambias is in the same league as Hal Clement.” ―Vernor Vinge, Hugo Award-winning author of A Fire Upon the Deep

“Cambias's exploration of truly alien politics is fast, fun, and packed with characters you'll cheer for. It's exciting to welcome an exuberant new voice to the ranks of hard science fiction!” ―Karl Schroeder, author of Ventus

“A compelling read.” ―Michael Flynn, author of On the Razor’s Edge

“A fascinating exploration of alien lives at the extreme edges of an alien world.” ―Brenda Cooper, award-winning author of The Silver Ship and the Sea

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books; First edition (January 28, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0765336278
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0765336279
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.18 x 1.16 x 8.46 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,257 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)
- #8,053 in First Contact Science Fiction (Books)
- #10,362 in Alien Invasion Science Fiction

Customer Reviews:
229 ratings

About the author

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James L. Cambias

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I grew up in New Orleans, and no matter where I live, that's always "home" to me. When I was fourteen years old I decided I wanted to write science fiction — I hoped to beat Isaac Asimov's record and publish my first story before I was fifteen.

I failed, because I was fourteen and didn't know what I was doing. It took me twenty years to figure that out and begin selling short stories. In the interim I got a degree at the University of Chicago, worked for a couple of publishers, and then became a freelance roleplaying game writer. I did pretty well at that, and I still call myself a writer and game designer.

In 2005 I joined with a couple of other people to start Zygote Games. We wanted to show that games can be educational without being dull. Our two games BONE WARS and PARASITES UNLEASHED made that point pretty well, I think.

In 2014 Tor Books published my first novel, A DARKLING SEA, and my second book CORSAIR came out from Tor the following year. My next novel, ARKAD'S WORLD, will be published by Baen Books in 2019.

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

229 global ratings

5 star		56%
4 star		26%
3 star		10%
2 star		6%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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J. A. Partridge

Stumbled on this book and couldn’t put it down.

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2014

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I heard about A Darkling Sea from a post on John Scalzi’s blog. When I read James Cambias’ thoughts on why warfare between alien races was extremely unlikely and why Star Trek’s Prime Directive “stems from a mix of outrageous arrogance and equally overblown self-loathing, a toxic brew masked by pure and noble rhetoric,” I was pretty much sold on the novel before I could read the sample pages.

It’s a classic, solid, hard SF story (but not too hard) that reads quickly and does not disappoint. I only have a few minor quibbles about it.

1) It seems too short. Perhaps I’m too used to epic fantasy doorstop books, but I wanted it to be twice as long and I really want to know what happens between the humans and the Sholen as a result of all this. I felt, occasionally, that I would have liked him to linger a little longer on some of the scenes. At times it almost felt like some scenes were missing or the plot just skipped to the next plot point without fully explaining the impact of some of the events.

2) The scenes from the Ilmatarans were in the present tense. I realize this probably had something to do with their perception of time and I believe there is a somewhat oblique reference to that late in the book. It doesn’t really add to the narrative in any way and mostly just distracts the reader and remind him he’s reading a book.

3) Aliens speaking each other’s language. This is a personal pet peeve of mine and I know it’s common in SF, but it’s probably even more unlikely than war in space. Any westerner who’s tried to learn Mandarin as an adult can understand how hard it is to do so after the brain begins to lose the ability to recognize (much less reproduce) new phonemes. Now imagine how hard this would be if you don’t have the same physiological structures to make or hear those sounds. I thought the whole issue of language with the Ilmatarans was particularly well thought out, but the Sholen speaking multiple human languages seemed unlikely. If we ever contact another intelligent species all conversation will almost certainly have to be handled through computerized translators.

Still, I was gripped by this book and the only reason I didn’t finish it the day I got it was because work kept interfering. I will most definitely be looking forward to more works from James Cambias.

One person found this helpful

Lacks believability

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2016

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I have really mixed feelings about this book. I didn’t enjoy it much, but that’s probably because I’m not the best audience for it. I’m just not interested in reading about alien artifacts, technology and culture that so closely parallel ours. This is even more true of all the political infighting, which was tedious and way too human-like to be of much interest.

The culture of one of the two alien species, the Ilmatarans, is described in some detail. But we don’t learn much about the Sholens, except that the military and bureaucratic hegemony is enhanced by sexual bonding–which doesn’t seem to work too well in actual practice.

Each culture is seen through the eyes of one member of that species. The main Ilmataran character, Broadtail, is likable enough. But the main human character, Rob, seems childish, silly, and inappropriate. He’s something of a prankster, and the pranks aren’t particularly engaging and interesting. I agree with another reviewer who said that his behavior is “pretty unrealistic, given the situation and the stakes.”

It’s impossible to read about the underwater Ilmatarans without envisioning – fish. But these fish are capitalists and property owners. They own land, grow food, have workers and apprentices. And they read something akin to books and get high on something akin to drugs.

Shouldn’t they be...well.., more fishlike?

By the time full-fledged violence breaks out, I had totally lost interest. What I wanted was more about the culture (the aspects that were truly alien), and more about the philosophical implications of three dissimilar species making contact with one another.

And Cambias is capable of giving us that. When he writes about the first efforts of the humans and the Ilmatarans who try to ferret out each other’s motivations and language and the misunderstandings that ensue, the book comes alive. The action, the plot, and the flow of the book were, for the most part, skillfully done. It’s just that the political intrigue, the violence, and the lack of believability made this, for me, a nonstarter.

One person found this helpful

Highly Recommended

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2014

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There are flaws here and they are largely on the level of sentence and paragraph. I guess I would call the writing "uneven but very good at its best" and it improves as the book goes along.
In the meantime, one is welcome to be intrigued by the science-fictional concepts that abound in this slim volume. There are two alien races here. One is native to the planet and the other is a space-going species somewhat "senior" to humanity. There is conflict _within_ each group as well as conflict between the groups. There is violence but there is great regret of the violence.
There is also a human character who has been compared to Jacque Cousteau. The comparison seems apt, although the fellow is a bit more of a buffoon.
I would like to follow the story of the local species further but it is more likely that we will run into the other aliens in the author's further writing. Like the spider-people in Vernor Vinge's immortal _A Deepness in the Sky_ the locals are probably not going to be heard from again.
I do not like the term "hard SF." We see it applied here in several reviews of a book that has fairly rapid interstellar travel. This book is interesting in part because of the science but I don't use that term.
The author has another book coming out next year. Because I am almost seventy I tend not to pre-order books but I am tempted.
I guess I should add my usual disclaimer: The five-star system isn't granular enough. This is not a five the way that Vinge's book above is a five or the way that _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ or _Kim_ is a five but it's not that far off.

Top reviews from other countries

Robert

Aliens, but not alien enough

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2014

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A Darkling Sea is a science fiction novel about scientists and explorers. They are exploring a moon, covered in a thick layer of solid ice, with a liquid, bittercold ocean underneath. There are three sets of scientists: humans, there to study the native life forms, native creatures, researching their own world, and another alien species, coming to tell the humans off for violating a space treaty that prohibited them from interacting with any intelligent aliens (which one of the explorers inadvertently did).

With a novel that has two alien civilisations at its heart, there is huge room for imagination to run wild. So I was slightly disappointed that these aliens were not, psychologically, terribly alien. The natives may be beluga-sized crustaceans with claws and feelers and pincers - but their social order and organisation and mindset is only alien around the edges. They might have different notions of nurturing the young ones, no interest in sex, and other superficial differences - but they still talk and think and interact and converse and research in ways that seem not that different from humans. In fact, it is perfectly conceivable that tribal and feudal systems on Earth could have much in common with their society. There is something interesting going on in the way they recall events and talk about the past, but it's not alien enough for my taste. The second alien species is all about sex, emotions, consensus, but they, too, could feasibly be a human society, when it comes to their own culture and psychology (and their Rousseauesque notions of noble savages).

The novel is at its best when there are culture clashes - when one group of aliens decides to research a creature they found, not realising that the creature is an intelligent character belonging to one of the other groups. Or when two aliens try to apply the most effective social pressure they can think of on a creature that is not culturally compatible with their approach. Such scenes are darkly funny and mischievously delightful.

There are language / communication barriers, and culture clashes, but ultimately, we have three species, all having two genders (males and females), all featuring heroes who have an interest in researching / finding out information (and all featuring antagonists who are more inclined towards violence and warfare), all having good, clear reasons for everything they do, all motivated by things that human can understand and relate to.

It's undoubtedly a pleasant read. It's never boring, and entertaining throughout. But it did not make a huge impression one me.

3.5/5 Stars

One person found this helpful

Oskar Axelsson

Very enjoyable!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 22, 2014

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This is a very good read. One of those books that pulls you into the story and it all comes alive in you mind. Highly recomended for those who enjoy a good science fiction story with some good science facts on the side .
It takes place under the ice of a distant planet in a realistic universe with the facts and consequences in good order. There is a political game with two well described alien species and humanity and it gives an interesting perspective of various standpoints.
The book reads a bit like a thriller, being rather fast paced, which is quite nice but I'd preferred a bit more flesh on the bones and a less abrupt ending to give it a fifth star.

One person found this helpful

Siegel

Original idea for alien encounter

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2021

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I was straight into the story and carried along at a good pace. It was inventive and gave the impression that the author had done a fair amount of research- this helps for such an alien but real environment. I would have given five stars but felt that the ending had been rushed with a couple of contrived plot devices. That’s not the case for most of the book. I’ll give this author another try.

M. Clare

very enjoyable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2014

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was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. A good standalone story covering some interesting concepts. Maybe Europa is like this.

F. Byers

Now we see through the deeps darkly.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2015

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Up there with the best scifi of 2014, very little tops this impressive debut. Well-written, providing enough detail to keep things scientifically plausible and make the aliens convincing.

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